Domiziano Cristopharo hardly needs an introduction to Severed
regulars, having found many of his works under the all-seeing
Creepy Eye microscope, not to mention articles and a lengthy
interview. Thus we find ourselves dissecting his latest
creation, Xpiation.

What I noticed straight away is a change of pace and style,
there's a fluid and rich feel to the beginning as the camera
lovingly laps up the derelict building in which we are to stay
for almost the whole duration of this film. Now that itself, in
this day and age, is a brave and still quite original quest
basing everything in a small enclosure, namely one room. The
challenge of course is to keep proceedings gripping enough for
every person who wanders into the film. Yeah, no probs there.
Domiziano is an artist and a craftsman, you know?

The music is captivating and heavily constructed to suit the
gloomy and questioning mood of the film (thanks to the man
behind the Scarecrowd score). Why is there a stern
looking woman sat in a chair with a camcorder? Usually that
isn't an issue, but the soundtrack tells you she could be a lot
more. She has a pierced and tattooed fella tied and ball gagged
on a chair in the empty building. Let's give her the benefit of
the doubt though, since the meaning of the title, or Expiation,
at least, is 'the act of making atonement' so things may be
deeper than the face value (it's a Domiziano flick, naturally
it'll be deeper!!)

As he cries and struggles, she morosely keeps on filming. All
the while there's been a bald bloke curled up on the floor
asleep in front of the captive. He gets up and leers at the guy
then slaps him about, leers some more and basically intimidates.
The face slaps jump into slow-mo for a while and our camera lady
allows herself a slight smile which fades quickly as she thinks
back Â as a child being slapped by her drunken mother.

ÂYou must be patient.Â she tells her violent slavering
comrade as he suckles her breast, ÂI told you it wouldn't be
easy.Â After much nipple attention and far less
conversation, he staggers off to put a record on then crouches
beside his victim.

There's a nice and remarkably possibly revealing scene as two
dealers enter the building, we see him beside an empty chair and
soon it looks as if they might not exist either. Thus we witness
a prolonged agonising drama as he uses a wire pad on his
victim's bare leg and all the blood to go with it Â then cutting
sometimes to see he is only viciously assailing a wall. He sees
the dealers are in fact demons. So who exactly is he? Somebody
playing on a tightrope between two sides of hell in his mind it
could be. Freaking out, he is comforted by the sinister lady and
he is dragged back to that realm whilst she patiently calms him.
ÂTell me, what makes you happy?Â she asks. He contorts
his face and shamelessly overacts, ÂDrugs!Â ÂAnd?Â
she pushes. ÂYou.Â he smiles.

Flashbacks again as she discovers her hubby (co-star from POE
4, Giorgio Agri) cheating on her. His look of bewilderment
as he hears her step into the room is comical. He leaps up from
the man he's screwing and follows her trying to explain. Things
turn violent, of course.

ÂThe face,Â once recovered from his little mind fuck,
thanks to a pill slipped into his mouth, our torturer carries on
his function, ÂThe face, it's the most important part of our
body. It shows emotions. The face. It's our calling card.Â
His speech is prelude to facial disfigurement which arouses her
until she recalls her abusive teenage years. She has to leave
for a while to tend to a client, thus leaving her wretched pet
to entertain their suffering captive. Yeah, he has a fair few
painful ideas to try out. As a matter of fact when she returns,
they both happily wade in until we find out what it's all about.

Xpiation
is a wholly different experience to what you might expect. Back
in my interview with Domiziano, I compared him to Alejandro
Jodorwsky and certainly, like the best of Jodorwsky, the
underflow of religious symbolism illuminates and unravels to
reveal itself at the conclusion which brings about the use of
agony to purify the eternal soul. Not to say this dilutes what
is on the screen, the impact isn't lessened by this factor at
least.

On the other side of the scale, Simone Tolu, as our torturing
tormenting bald leering fella is simply an irritating bastard
all the way through! No depth and no soul, just making noises
and pulling faces. My apologies to everyone who involved
themselves and immersed deeply into making what could have been
a dark and lavish mood piece burrowing itself into my mind like
a feral animal looking for food, however Simone did nothing but
destroy any sense of wonder I might have obtained from this
film. By purpose and design is he meant to be ironic? Sardonic?
Anything else ending with 'ic'? Is he then a drug addict? Let me
set the record straight here, for years I worked alongside many
drug addicts as clients in various pawnbrokers and buyback
stores. I have never seen anyone at any level of drug usage act
this way! So then, must he be someone living in different realms
of fantasy and clawing his way through madness? One or the other
as an explanation doesn't soothe the rash he causes I'm afraid.
As regarding what he is, IÂm not revealing anything.

Which is a complete and utter shame, for I have to credit the
direction and balance of angles. Setting a whole movie in
basically one place (aside from brief flashbacks of course)
there is much creativity to be seen for the switching constant
cameras. The effects are totally marvellous Â simple and to the
point. Not flashy, just blood and allowing pain to be felt by
the viewers. Watching as the guy's face is severed and cut
doesn't hold back, it's graphic. Yeah, there's cut away moments,
but it always come back to show more brutality.

Throughout the ridiculously over the top and mugging performance
by Simone I truly attempted to adore this film. As I stated
above, take that away and I wouldn't have found myself angry at
some points whilst watching. I think personally the film will
require a second watch, but as it stands for this review, I
simply like Xpiation. The idea is basic, but filled by
heady visuals that I recommend it to Severed readers. Who knows,
maybe you'll discover something worthwhile in Simone as well.